1. Field
Provided is a foldable display apparatus, and more particularly, a foldable display apparatus using a protective window structure including hard materials and soft materials for protection from external impact.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a display apparatus using a flat panel display panel, such as a liquid crystal display (“LCD”), a field emission display (“FED”), a plasma display panel (“PDP”), or an organic light-emitting diode (“OLED”) display, is mainly applied to televisions (“TVs”), mobile phones, etc. Recently, as demand for a large screen in miniaturized portable devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), increases, devices realizing a large screen through a connection with a flat panel display panel are available in the market. Furthermore, attempts for utilizing a display made of a flexible substrate are increasing.
A foldable display apparatus having a bending and folding feature that is a large advantage of a display made of a flexible substrate is easy to carry and can implement a large screen. The foldable display apparatus can be applied to not only mobile devices, such as mobile phones, portable multimedia players (“PMPs”), navigation systems, ultra mobile personal computers (“UMPCs”), e-books, and e-newspapers, but also to various fields, such as TVs and monitors.
In particular, since the foldable display apparatus has a relatively small structural volume required to make a large screen size, the foldable display apparatus will be widely used for portable devices. However, the foldable display apparatus used for portable devices needs a protective window structure for protecting a display part from external impact, and the protective window structure must also be foldable.